Zoobiquity is “a species-spanning approach that combines the knowledge and expertise of veterinary and human medicine practice”, and the authors of this book, Barbara Natterson Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers, unpack that to find out what animals can teach us about being human.

Horowitz, a US cardiologist, is the scientific brains behind the project, while journalist Bowers adds the polish and readability.

They start with Horowitz being asked for advice about Spitzbuben, a tiny tamarin from the Los Angeles Zoo, suffering heart failure.

While helping the primate, she learned something useful about “capture myopathy”, which sometimes happens to animals caught by predators, when a surge of adrenaline can injure the chambers of the heart. It can kill, especially cautious and highly-strung prey animals.

Even eye-contact can bring it on, apparently. Spitzbuben didn’t have capture myopathy, but Horowitz learned not to stare at him. Later, she made a link with a human syndrome called takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a bulge in the left ventricle giving symptoms of heart attack, brought on by intense emotions.

Perhaps takotsubo and capture myopathy were the same syndrome with different names? If so, then it showed the gulf between vets and doctors, for vets had been aware of how fear could damage heart muscles for at least 40 years, while doctors were only in 2000 beginning to recognise that you could die of fright.

A compelling chapter is devoted to cancer in animals and humans, including the tale of a fossilised Gorgosaurus, a relative of T Rex, believed to show evidence of a brain tumour.

There are chapters on comparative sexual behaviour, drug abuse and self-harm, as well as fascinating examinations of infection and adolescence. The discussion of the sexually transmitted diseases of koalas is eye-opening, and the final chapter includes a powerful and disturbing account of the arrival of West Nile virus in New York and its progress across the USA. Much was learned about human diseases with these examples.

As you might expect, the evidence presented supports the thesis and suggests that vets and doctors ought to communicate with each other more than they do.